It is only natural that the St. Luke’s “Get Your Tail on the Trail” program would come to the Lehigh Valley Zoo, allowing participants to exercise among its array of beautiful animals and amazing vistas. You can be part of the festivities!

Join St. Luke’s University Health Network (SLUHN) and the Lehigh Valley Zoo as they celebrate their new partnership and dedicate a new half-mile walking trail on April 24 at 11 am, at the zoo, which is located at 5150 Game Preserve Road in Schnecksville. The event is free and will be held rain or shine.

Created by St. Luke’s and the Delaware & Lehigh National Heritage Corridor, Get Your Tail on the Trail is a free program aimed at helping people of all ages and abilities meet their personal fitness goals and experience the outdoors on local trails through day-to-day challenges, public events, and motivating prizes.

“We are joining the Get Your Tail on the Trail program to bring awareness to and celebrate the fact that the zoo is an incredible place to get that important daily exercise in your life,” explains Pete Fox, Lehigh Valley Zoo’s Vice President of Marketing and Partnerships.

“The zoo has a scenic walk in nature that is ultra-safe and secure on top of the fact that there are over 300 beautiful animals you can gaze at as you’re exercising. We are excited to be a part of St. Luke’s and the Get Your Tail on the Trail program’s dedicated mission of getting people outside and exercising.”

As part of the “Walk with a Doc”program, St. Luke’s lifestyle medicine doctor Bonnie Coyle will lead the walk and discuss the health benefits of green exercise.Participants can walk at their own pace and distance.

The Lehigh Valley Zoo’s half-mile general loop inside the zoo is stroller-friendly and treks through the zoo’s 130 species of animals. Along the way are new markers every tenth of a mile so guests know how far they have walked and new trail signs with fitness tips.

“The walk is predominantly flat with one small decline area and one small incline area,” Fox notes. “The scenery inside the zoo in unprecedented and the fact that we are inside a 1,200-acre game preserve and out in nature is great for the soul and mind to relax and have an enjoyable exercise experience.”

Founded in 1872, St. Luke’s University Health Network (SLUHN) is a fully integrated, regional, non-profit network of more than 15,000 employees providing services at 10 hospitals and over 320 outpatient sites. With annual net revenue greater than $2 billion, the Network’s service area includes 10 counties: Lehigh, Northampton, Berks, Bucks, Carbon, Montgomery, Monroe and Schuylkill counties in Pennsylvania and Warren and Hunterdon counties in New Jersey. Dedicated to advancing medical education, St. Luke’s is the preeminent teaching hospital in central-eastern Pennsylvania. In partnership with Temple University, St. Luke’s created the Lehigh Valley’s first and only regional medical school campus. It also operates the nation’s longest continuously operating School of Nursing, established in 1884, and 28 fully accredited graduate medical educational programs with 226 residents and fellows. St. Luke’s is the only Lehigh Valley-based health care system with Medicare’s five- and four-star ratings (the highest) for quality, efficiency and patient satisfaction. St. Luke’s is both a Leapfrog Group and Healthgrades Top Hospital and a Newsweek World’s Best Hospital. In 2019, three of IBM Watson Health’s 100 Top Hospitals were St. Luke’s hospitals. St. Luke’s University Hospital has earned the 100 Top Major Teaching Hospital designation from IBM Watson Health seven times total and five years in a row. St. Luke’s has also been cited by IBM Watson Health as a 50 Top Cardiovascular Program. Utilizing the Epic electronic medical record (EMR) system for both inpatient and outpatient services, the Network is a multi-year recipient of the Most Wired award recognizing the breadth of the SLUHN’s information technology applications such as telehealth, online scheduling and online pricing information. St. Luke’s is also recognized as one of the state’s lowest cost providers.